Morphotek Inc. Earns Prestigious Award For Innovation In Assay Development

5/30/2012 12:11:02 PM

EXTON, Pa., May 30, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Morphotek®, Inc., a subsidiary of Eisai Inc., announced today that The American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) has awarded its 2012 Excellence in Ligand Binding Assays Award to the Bioanalytical Development group from Morphotek for their abstract, "Development and Validation of a Pharmacokinetic Assay on the Gyrolab Platform for Use in Phase II/III Clinical Studies." The award was presented at the AAPS 2012 National Biotechnology Conference held May 21-23 in San Diego.

The award, which is given annually, is designed to promote the science and technology of ligand binding assays through recognition of individuals who have made the most outstanding contributions in ligand binding assays within the pharmaceutical sciences, as judged by a committee of scientific peers. In a letter to Jay Wustner, Associate Director of Morphotek's Bioanalytical Development Department, Dr. David Mitchell, President of the AAPS, states, "There was keen competition for this award, as there were many very good abstracts considered this year. Your work, as judged by the selection committee, was deemed the most outstanding."

The abstract focused on the development and use of a novel semi-automated assay system to efficiently and accurately measure the levels of Morphotek's investigational monoclonal antibody drug, farletuzumab, in large-scale, late-phase clinical studies. This ligand binding assay format utilized the Gyrolab instrument platform coupled with a high-throughput testing strategy requiring minimal resources and analysis time. Using this system, the Bioanalytical team at Morphotek was able to perform over 300 assay runs that generated more than 14,000 sample values in approximately six months.

"We are extremely pleased to receive this notable award and sincerely appreciate the recognition that the Morphotek team received from Dr. Mitchell and the entire AAPS selection committee," said Morphotek's Jay Wustner. "This award reinforces Morphotek's commitment to innovation and leadership, not only in the specific realm of bioanalytical assay development, but also in the broader spectrum of applied biotechnology for clinical drug development and our human health care mission."

About MorphotekMorphotek®, Inc., a subsidiary of Eisai Inc., is a biopharmaceutical company specializing in the development of protein and antibody products through the use of a novel and proprietary gene evolution technology. The technology has been successfully applied to a broad variety of cell lines and organisms to yield genetically diverse offspring that are suitable for pharmaceutical product development in the areas of antibody therapeutics, protein therapeutics, product manufacturing, drug target discovery, and improved output traits for commercial applications. The company is currently focusing its platform on the development and manufacturing of therapeutic antibodies for the treatment of cancer, inflammation and infectious disease. For more information, please visit www.morphotek.com.

About Eisai Inc.Eisai Inc. was established in 1995 and began marketing its first product in the United States in 1997. Since that time, Eisai Inc. has rapidly grown to become a fully integrated pharmaceutical business. Eisai's key areas of commercial focus are neurology and oncology. The company serves as the U.S. pharmaceutical operation of Eisai Co., Ltd., a research-based human health care (hhc) company that discovers, develops and markets products throughout the world.

Eisai has a global product creation organization that includes U.S.-based R&D facilities in Massachusetts, New Jersey, North Carolina and Pennsylvania, as well as manufacturing facilities in Maryland and North Carolina. The company's areas of R&D focus include neuroscience; oncology; vascular, inflammatory and immunological reaction; and antibody-based programs. For more information about Eisai, please visit www.eisai.com/US.